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Now in Acts 28 I want to focus on one verse then we are going to turn to some other passages in the Bible But I want to focus on this part in verse number 22 but before I do let me go ahead and just give you the background of the story Of course Paul was arrested for doing what? Just preaching the Bible, just preaching the Gospel, preaching God's word And he went to Jerusalem to bring alms from the people that had gathered in Greece and Macedonia He was bringing their alms into Jerusalem and of course he was in the temple and there was a whole story there that I'm not going to go into But they arrest him, they lay hands on him and he's put in jail, they find out he's a Roman citizen So now they have to give him his rights, they have to be careful how they treat him, they can't just lock him up without a trial or beat him or anything like that Because he had rights as a Roman citizen Well there were some men of Israel who laid a vow upon themselves and they said we're not going to eat or drink until we killed him And there were a lot of other people who were plotting and planning to kill him And so therefore instead of agreeing to go back to Jerusalem to be judged for his so called crimes of just preaching He appealed unto Caesar and they said well if he would have just went back to Jerusalem he would have been set at liberty But now he's appealed to Caesar he has to go to Rome But the reason he did that he knew that when he went to Jerusalem they were going to kill him And so that wasn't going to help him the fact that he might get acquitted So basically he's on a ship, he's on this ship with the sign of Castor and Pollux and he's heading toward Rome He makes a few stops along the way Well basically he's shipwrecked, he's on an island, all these different things happen Well when he gets to Rome he seeks out or they really come to see him He calls for them, he sends people and says I want to speak to the children of Israel that are living in Rome, the Jews So they all come to hear him And he's talking to them and he's saying look here's what happened to me I've been arrested and so forth And they said well we'd like to hear what you have to say Paul Because we've heard a little bit about this but we want to hear what it actually is And here's the part that I want to preach on in verse 22 it says But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest For as concerning this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against Then he goes on to preach them the gospel, some of them believed, some of them got saved Many did not get saved and Paul of course is very frustrated with the ones that did not get saved And said this is why I've been preaching to the Gentiles Because they will receive the truth unlike you But I want to preach a sermon tonight called this Everywhere spoken against Everywhere spoken against Isn't it interesting that the Christianity of the first century I mean we're talking about the apostles who ate and fellowshiped with Jesus Christ in the flesh while he was on this earth Isn't it amazing how their ministry and Paul's ministry because it wasn't just Paul They said this sect You know we're talking Peter, James, John, the whole religion of Christianity They said we don't even know what it is, we don't know what being saved is We don't know what your doctrine is There's only one thing that we know Is that this religion is spoken against everywhere But I'm sure today it's changed And yet today we think that we can preach God's word faithfully And preach God's word as it's written in this book and that people are going to like us When back then it was always spoken against And I guarantee you today that if you preach the truth you will be spoken against Everywhere Everywhere Look if you would in Luke chapter 6 Luke chapter number 6 You're in Acts, just go back a few books toward the beginning of the Bible Luke chapter number 6 Here's going back several decades to Jesus Christ's ministry on this earth Here's what he preached in the Sermon on the Mount He said in verse 22 Blessed are ye when men shall hate you And when they shall separate you from their company And shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil For the son of man's sake Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy For behold your reward is great in heaven For in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets So basically all the way back in the days of the prophets Preachers were reproached Preachers were hated Preachers had their name cast out as evil Jesus said that's what they did to the prophets He said that's what they're doing to me right now He said blessed are you if you fall into that category right now And then decades later in the book of Acts Paul is confronted with people and they say we don't know anything about Christianity Except that it's spoken against everywhere That's all we know about it I don't believe it's changed It was that way in the Old Testament It was that way in the time of Christ It was that way in the time of the book of Acts And it's that way today You will be spoken against if you preach the truth And the preacher who is not spoken against is not preaching the truth I'll prove it to you Look at verse 26 I'll prove it to you Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you For so did their fathers to the false prophets He said if all men speak well of you Just you're a false prophet That's why Cause if you were a real prophet of God You'd be spoken against everywhere That's what the Bible says Look at Proverbs 22 Proverbs chapter 22 Because I like to give both sides of everything that I preach Because I like to prove what I preach from the Bible I'm not just going to get up here and give my opinion I'm proving it from the Bible Like I just showed you some very clear scriptures that prove the thesis of my sermon But I like to give the other argument You know the other side of what they'll try to say And show you how they misuse scripture Look at Proverbs 22 This is a verse that you've probably heard many times And here's kind of what somebody will say Wait a minute Pastor Anderson It says in Proverbs 22 verse 1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches And loving favor rather than silver and gold So the Bible there is teaching that you should want to have a good name It's better than gold It's better than silver Listen to this This is Ecclesiastes 7.1 A good name is better than precious ointment And the day of death than the day of one's birth Now there's something to be said for your reputation For example if you run a business You want to have a good reputation Because you're going to get most of your business through word of mouth Through referrals I don't do any advertising in my business No advertising Everything I do is through referrals and word of mouth So I want to have a good name I want to have a good name in the fire alarm business I want to have a good reputation But let me ask you something In a world that's wicked and ungodly Do you really want to have a good reputation with someone who's evil You know with someone who's ungodly And wait a minute Yes a good name is rather to be chosen than gold and silver But you know what's rather to be chosen than gold, silver or a good name Being right with God It's better than gold, silver, precious ointment or having a good name And you see you're not going to have a good name among wicked people If you're righteous And the reason why is because the Bible says in Proverbs That a righteous man is an abomination to the wicked And the wicked are an abomination to the just And so your name is going to be a good name up in heaven When you're doing the right thing It's going to be a good name in the Bible Look at Jeremiah chapter 28 Jeremiah chapter 28 Toward the end of the Old Testament you have these three great big books Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel The three of the major prophets there So they're pretty easy to find Jeremiah chapter 28 You see Jeremiah I'd say has a pretty good name Because his name is on the longest book in the Bible Number one It depends on how you look at it Psalms has more chapters Psalms has more verses But Jeremiah has more words Jeremiah is a long book And if you go by words it's the longest book in the Bible It's right there tied with Psalms for length Okay Jeremiah has got a pretty good name today But in his day among the world Among the unbelievers Among the ungodly He was one of the most hated preachers of the Old Testament He was I mean if you read all the different prophets He was the most hated He was the one that they hated the most Remember when Jesus Christ came on the scene and he said Whom do men say that I am? He said some people say that you're Jeremiah You remember that? They said some say that you're Elias Some say that you're John the Baptist You know Some say that you're Jeremiah What kind of preacher was Jesus? Yeah he preached hard And a lot of people didn't like him They always sought to kill him And he always had to flee away and hide Because it was not yet his time to go But in Jeremiah 28 Let me show you the difference Between the true prophet of God The preacher who is faithfully preaching God's word And the false prophet I'm going to show you the difference in Jeremiah 28 As it's vividly shown here In verse number 1 it says And it came to pass the same year In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah In the fourth year and in the fifth month That Hananiah This is a false prophet by the way Hananiah The son of Azar the prophet which was of Gibeon Spake unto me in the house of the Lord The me there is Jeremiah Jeremiah is narrating the book In the presence of the priests and all the people saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts The God of Israel saying I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon Within two full years will I bring again into this place All the vessels of the Lord's house That Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon Took away from this place And carried them to Babylon And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Joachim king of Judah With all the captains of Judah That went into Babylon Sayeth the Lord for I will break the yoke Of the king of Babylon Now that's a very positive message Of course God had said that they would go into captivity For seventy years This guy is saying well two years from now Everything is going to be great Everybody is going to come home And everybody is going to be happy And everything is going to be perfect Now the people of Israel had not repented Of any of their evil Any of their wickedness Any of the sins that caused them to go into captivity yet And this guy is just preaching That everything is going to be fine They are all going to come home Jeremiah is preaching no It's going to be seventy years And later on they reject the word of the Lord again But here is what happens in verse number five Five it says Then the prophet Jeremiah Said unto the prophet Hananiah This is Jeremiah's response to this false prophet In the presence of the priests And in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord Even the prophet Jeremiah said Amen The Lord do so The Lord perform thy words Which thou hast prophesied To bring again the vessels of the Lord's house And all that is carried away captive From Babylon into this place Amen That sounds great he is saying I hope that's what happens Sounds great Nevertheless Verse seven Hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears In the ears of all the people The prophets that have been before me And before thee He is talking to this phony preacher Hananiah Of old Prophesied both against Many countries And against great kingdoms Of war and of evil And of pestilence The prophet which prophesied the peace When the word of the prophet shall come to pass Then shall the prophet be known That the Lord hath truly sent him He's saying well you know if this happens Then I'll believe you But pretty much every other pastor And every preacher I've ever known who was preaching right Was preaching on to negative things It wasn't this positive only message That you're preaching Hananiah I'll believe when I see it Then Hananiah The prophet verse 10 Took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck And break it because Jeremiah had a yoke On his neck A literal yoke that he was using as an object lesson About the yoke that God was putting on him Putting him into servitude He was wearing this as an object lesson And it's kind of weird I know But he was a very dynamic preacher And it says In verse number 10 The prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck And break it And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people saying Thus saith the Lord Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon from the neck of all nations Within the space of two full years So he's continuing his false prediction Basically he just made this up God didn't tell him to say He's just completely dreaming this up Because it's positive because people like it Because he's popular Because he's saying all these happy smiley things It says in verse number 12 Then the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the prophet After that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke From off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah Saying go and tell Hananiah This is God's word Thus saith the Lord thou has broken the yokes of wood But thou Thou shalt make for them Yokes of iron Notice he's blaming the phony preacher Saying you are making it worse On God's people They're going to be judged worse Worse They had a yoke of wood that was going to be upon them He said now it's going to be a yoke of iron Because of phony preachers like you Telling everybody it's going to be fine Even though they spit in God's eye And disobey his laws Everything's going to be fine, it's going to be great Peace, peace when there is no peace Look what he says next For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel I put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations That they may serve Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon And they shall serve him And I have given him the beast of the field also Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet Hear now Hananiah The Lord have not sent thee But thou makest this people To trust in a lie Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I will cast thee from off the face of the earth This year Thou shalt die Because thou has taught Rebellion against the Lord So Hananiah the prophet died the same year In the seventh month Look at the last phrase there at the end of chapter Or verse 16 it says Because thou has taught rebellion against the Lord Let me tell you something The preacher who preaches That there's no consequences for your sins Is teaching rebellion against the Lord Now we preach easy salvation Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ And thou shalt be saved Jesus did the hard part When he died on the cross, shed his blood Was buried and broken That was the hard part But our part is simply receiving The gift of eternal life But as many as received him To them gave he power to become the sons of God Even to them that believe on his name Jesus paid it all And so we have the easy part of just believing on Jesus Christ And so our sins are washed away Gone as far as the east is from the west We're on our way to heaven We're forgiven We're redeemed We're justified freely by his grace Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus But there are consequences To your actions in this world You will reap what you've sown Even as a Christian You're going to heaven You'll never see the fires of hell But be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth That shall he also reap Saved, unsaved You will reap what you sow in this life Whether you're saved or not saved Period God preaches otherwise Is teaching rebellion against the Lord When he teaches you Sin, commit wickedness, commit adultery Steal, murder Drunk, drunkenness, covetousness, whatever And everything will be great You'll be okay God's the God of the 525th chance And you'll be okay He's teaching a lie He's prophesying a lie The preacher who tells you that God's going to Send revival to America The preacher that tells you America is going to be spared from the judgment of God He's a liar It's impossible, I've proved it from the Bible When you shed innocent blood It can only be cleansed by shedding the blood of those who shed it And there's so many people with innocent blood on their hands In this country From abortion, from many other things I'm not going to go into that in this sermon God's judgment is coming The preacher who tells you about it is the one telling the truth And the preacher who tells you that it's all going to be fine And that America is going to be spared He's a liar He's a liar Our country has become so wicked and vile In the sight of God His judgment will come Be not deceived God is not mocked And whatsoever America has shown America will reap And I'm going to tell you the truth about it And the other people who try to say It's all going to be forgiven I was speaking to a young guy today And he was a really nice guy And he said I'm saved, I'm born again It's his faith, it's his belief That's it And we were talking about some other issues Talking about the Bible And he said Isn't that kind of a hellfire and damnation view of God? What about the other view of God That he's loving and forgiving? I said I only have one view of God There's only one God He's both I said God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish But I've ever last time It's a loving God But I said you still cross a line where you enter into God's wrath And every single human being in this world Who rejects Jesus Christ Does not believe on Jesus Christ Their savior Is going to taste of the wrath of God for all eternity in hell And that's a reality Hell's a real place And so that's who God is God's the God of heaven but he's the God of hell And so that's who God is My view of God is all love and kindness My view is not all hellfire and brimstone I just believe the whole Bible I believe the parts that I like and the parts I don't like The good part and the good, the bad and the ugly Whatever the Bible says I believe it And I'm going to preach it And so you're teaching rebellion against the Lord When you teach people that no matter what they do The outcome will be good There will always be a happy ending But in real life there's not always a happy ending I know on TV and the movies you watch Everything ends up great at the end But you know what? Sometimes there's not a happy ending In people's lives And the preacher who loves you will preach that to you So that you'll get right with God And at least stop Sowing the way You're still probably going to reap the bad stuff that you've done But at least you can stop, start sowing some good things And maybe reap those down the road But it's going to take time Look at Isaiah chapter 56 Let me show you a little more about this same subject Isaiah chapter 56 Again he's talking about preachers who Will not warn people They will not preach what needs to be preached They want to preach a positive only message They want to preach what people like Look at Isaiah 56 verse 10 He says his watchman Of course the watchman is a metaphor That he constantly uses in the book of Ezekiel and elsewhere About a preacher About a prophet Someone who is watching and warning of the danger Think about what a watchman is He sits on the wall He stays up all night long And he sees the enemy coming in business He sounds the trumpet He warns of impending danger God likens his prophets Unto a watchman He likens them here unto a watchman And also unto a watchdog He says in Isaiah 56 verse 10 His watchmen are blind Can you imagine a blind watchman When your whole job is to watch for somebody And you're blind You need to pick a new job It reminds me of when I was in Oregon And you know in Oregon you can't pump your own gas Who knows what I'm talking about And Oregon and New Jersey Those are the two states where it's illegal to pump your own gas So they have a guy there Or a girl to pump the gas for you So Scott and I pull into a gas station in Oregon And this girl pumps our gas And we pull out five minutes later The check engine light comes off And I say to Scott She didn't put the gas cap on right At first we were like oh man what's wrong with the engine Do we need to pull over, do we need to do something And I said no you know what She didn't put the gas cap on Now it's pretty sad when that's your whole job All you do all day is just Undo the Whatever you call it Undo the gas cap Pump the gas Hand the receipt Close it up I was thinking to myself we need to get back in California Put your own gas, put the lid on right But if you're a watchman and you're blind You're in the wrong line of work He's saying his watchmen are blind And if you're a preacher who's spiritually blind You need to get another job If you can't see the bad things coming If you can't see negative consequences To people's actions Then you're in the wrong line of work But he says here that these watchmen are blind They're all ignorant And that's even worse An ignorant preacher You better learn and learn And learn and study to show Thyself approved unto God A workman that needed not to be ashamed Rightly dividing the word of truth Because if you don't know the Bible you have to be ashamed of yourself You're going to get up and call yourself a preacher Know the Bible Know what you're talking about We have too many preachers who don't know what they're talking about You need to read and read and read Before you learn how to preach The most important thing is to know what to preach That's more important Because you can be dynamic and swing from the chandeliers But you've got to know that what you're saying is right And so you've got to learn the Bible You don't want to be blind And you don't want to be ignorant And then he says this They're all dumb dogs Dumb meaning unable to speak He says they're all dumb dogs They cannot bark Sleeping, they're lazy he says Lying down, loving to slumber Yea they're greedy dogs It's all about money It's all about money, it's all about the paycheck Which can never have enough And they are shepherds Of course the word pastor means shepherd That's what it means It comes to the same root word as the word pasture And they are shepherds that cannot understand They all look to their own way Everyone for his gain from his quarter And here's what they'll tell you Come ye say they all fetch wine And we will fill ourselves with strong drink And tomorrow shall be as this day And much more abundant Everything's fine Let's eat, drink and be merry And tomorrow everything's going to be fine Have a beer with me after the service Everything's going to be fine Lighten up a little All this doom and gloom Like God's wrath And God's judgment That turns people off It turns people off Especially the young people They don't like it They like something a little more uplifting A little more positive And so let's have a beer with them Let's reach them where they're at Let's sit down with them And just kind of rap a little bit Let's just talk And in fact we're going to get rid of the pulpit and replace it with a barstool And I'm going to sit up on a barstool And just kind of In fact we need two pastors One pastor So we'll get like two of us up here And maybe I'm on a barstool here Brother Dave's on a barstool We've got to format it We've got to format it out like a radio talk show You know there's like two hosts And they kind of So Dave, what do you think this passage means Brother Dave And he'll be like well you know A lot of people, a lot of good scholars Say that if you go back to the Greek And we can just kind of analyze it And go back and forth with it and everything like that But you see The dumb dog baptist church Okay He was asleep at the wheel He's not warning He loves money He's ignorant And he wants you to think that everything's Going to be fine next year It's going to be just like this year And hey it might even be better You know what I mean? Tomorrow shall be as this day And hey why not? Much more abundant Why not? Well I'm lying to you We ought to be warning Of sin We ought to be standing up As preachers, as Christians And warning and sometimes it's a negative message That people don't want to hear And that's why it's always spoken against I mean think about it If all that we preach was sweetness and light Who would speak against it? I don't think that there's anybody in this world Who's against loving your neighbor as yourself Have you ever read somebody and said I don't agree with that You know what I mean? If you go to the Mormons and the Catholics And the Muslims and the Buddhists They'd all agree with that Do you really think the Mormons don't agree with that? Love your neighbor as yourself Is a good idea Do you think the Buddhists have a problem with that? Do you think the Hindus have a problem with that? Does the Navajo traditional Religion have a problem with that? Probably sounds good Everybody likes that But when you start preaching The rest of the Bible Most people when we go out Solving don't even really have a problem With the gospel message Of just Jesus died for our sins He rose again But then you start saying well he's the only way to heaven You know Then they start having a problem You say well if you don't believe you go to hell Now we're losing people You know what I mean? Think about it All other religions are false Because Jesus said I am the door And he said this He said I'm the good shepherd All that came before me are thieves and robbers But I'm the good shepherd I'm the savior of the world That's what he said He said everybody else who has claimed to be a savior or a messiah Has been a liar If he were today Saying the same type of thing as what he was saying He'd basically be saying Buddha was a liar He'd be saying Joseph Smith was a liar He'd tell you that Mohammed was a liar And he shouldn't have been married to a nine year old girl The pervert He would tell you He's a pervert and a pedophile And a polygamist And anything else that starts with a P That's weird You know Joseph Smith was like that Mohammed was like that And they'd tell you the truth about it And that's where you start making people mad I mean I used to preach in two nursing homes When we started this church On Sunday afternoon And I preached there for about six months each And I got thrown out of both of them after about six months And it was for the same thing And I preached a lot of radical sermons in there But you know what got me thrown out? Just preaching that Jesus was the only way to heaven Literally I mean out of all the radical stuff I preach You know I'm expecting them to say it was this It was this, it was this, it was this It's just no Any other way you know And any other way is wrong They said it's too exclusive You know it's got to be an inclusive message And I said you know I can't preach an inclusive message It's just not true You know I got thrown out I think I'm going to cry about it You know but that's life And I just decided You know it was really sad Because the people in the nursing home they loved it The harder I preached the more they liked it They said man we love you They said faithful Word Baptist Church is our church You're our pastor And they would come, they'd dress up and come and they loved it But the staff What happened was One of them, the wife of the manager Happened to be there on a Sunday And Oh wow I don't know And they said oh you know it's offending some people And I'm thinking to myself well the Catholic mass you guys offer Probably offends some people too It offends me The priest needs to wear pants It offends me that he doesn't wear pants Dress like a man Don't wear a skirt I'm sure people are offended by the non-denominational service Even though their desire is to never offend I'm offended by the NIV I'm offended by a lot of things about it But the point is That the truth is going to offend people The truth causes division Because when the truth is preached Some believe it's in Acts 28 And some believe not But when nothing is preached Everybody just nods their head and smiles And says oh great Even Jeremiah is saying amen To the phony liberal preacher Nobody disagrees with him Even Jeremiah said this sounds good And I've said it before If you and I went to most liberal churches If we visited one of these liberal churches We'd probably agree with 99% of what's said But there's just not much being said Because it's just a lot of generic General things and it's not what they say It's what they don't say that's the problem That's the problem The false prophet doesn't tell you the truth He only tells you the positive stuff Which a lot of it's good stuff But that's all he tells you And he's leaving you in the dark on the rest of it You see, Christianity That's a true Bible Christianity Is going to be spoken against Now let me ask you something Do you believe that you will live a godly Christian life And everyone in your extended family Is going to love you You know what I mean? Because even Jesus' own brethren mocked him There was even division in his own family And you're going to come to a point In your life where you have to decide Between being popular And doing the right thing Because what's right is never popular And what's popular is never right And you're going to have to choose Before you know You get with your friends in high school And maybe you're in the public school system Maybe that's where you're at You know, my children are homeschooled Thank God, because I don't want them to be exposed To the public school system And I don't want them to be programmed And made into a disciple of the government But I teach my own children, my wife teaches them But let's say you're in the public school system You know, I graduated from public school Let's say you're in that system You will not Fit in and be popular in that system Unless you compromise what's in this book It's the only way to fit in It's the only way to be popular It's the only way people are going to like you It's the only way you're going to be cool It's the only way you're going to be the prom king Or the prom queen It's the only way you're going to be the most loved And lifted up and in the yearbook The most this, the most that It's only if you compromise what that book says That's the only way Because if you're a soul winner, if you're righteous If you're godly, you're going to bear reproach For the name of Jesus Christ in that school It's the truth, I've been there I've been to public school And I brought my Bible to school I set it on my books I stood up for what was right I stood up in the class And proclaimed the truth in many classes To the chagrin of many that were there They didn't like it, they got angry They were upset, people got mad I preached against Roman Catholicism I preached against evolution All the things that were being taught to me I stood up for what was right And people didn't like it And people still don't like it and people will never like it Go to public school And stand up for what's right You say, oh if I wear a skirt People are going to make fun of me Now first of all, I see people wearing skirts I see girls wearing skirts all the time that aren't even Christians Don't you? I mean I've seen girls that are Atheists Wearing a long, modest skirt Who's ever seen something like that before? Of course You know, I sometimes I'll see a girl that's just very modestly dressed You think, oh I wonder if this is a Christian young lady, she's dressed so modest You know, and then based on A few minutes later after you've heard some things out of her mouth You're thinking, you know No, she's not You know She's like, you know, into Satan or something But the point is The point is that, first of all You're not I'm not preaching that you should dress like You're Amish or something I'm not preaching to Dress like you live in Tehran or something But what I am preaching Is that you should follow God's guidelines For clothing And I'm not going to preach the whole sermon on clothing right now But there are plenty of guidelines in this book That tell girls not to dress immodestly That tell them to dress like Ladies and dress feminine and not to dress in men's clothing Not to go in the tight fitting And the halter top And the short shorts And all the different things That girls wear to school That are not right That's how you'll dress if you want to fit in though Here's a sermon on how to fit in Dress like you're sleazy Dress like you're for sale And by the way, if you're not for sale Then take down the for sale side And so, you know, dress like you're for sale Dress like the world Dress like Britney Spears Dress like Madonna Dress like the whores and whore markers of Hollywood And if you're a guy and you want to fit in Wear your little tight fitting pants And your lowrider pants And wear Abercrombie and Fitch And have your hair all shaggy Like you're the fifth Beatle or something Hey, why don't you decide That I'm going to dress and act and talk And walk like a Christian And I'm going to be made fun of And I'm going to be an adult And it's going to be the same battle that you face Whether you want to fit in or do the right thing Hey, when I was a teenager I was worldly, I wasn't perfect I was definitely not as grown as I am now Thank God Because I'm still growing And so back then I was a lot more immature On my spiritual walk But maybe standing up in the public school On the things that I did stand up on Maybe that helped me to grow the backbone That I have today Do you think I just grew a backbone overnight? Do you think overnight I just went from being Mr. Nambi Pambi And let everybody push me around And I gave them all my lunch money And gave them my food And they picked me up on my ankles And shook out all my money And beat me up Do you think I just went from I've got to fit in I've got to do everything the way I'm told Do you think I just went from that And then one day I just went And by the way that's my favorite word No And if you're a preacher you better know that word No That's a word that you need When you preach Let's switch into the preaching class for a minute How to preach one on one With Pastor Anderson Who in here would like to preach some day Put up your hand if you want to preach some day Stand up and yell the word No No Alright good I like it That's how you preach You say no Now it's easy to say no to me brother Dave It's saying no to her that's hard That woman in the audience Who doesn't like you preaching You know what I mean Or him, you know, Mr. Moneybags Mr. Big Spending Deacon You know Or you know Nobody's going to tell me what to do You know Say no to her for a while Then I'll call you a man of God Then I'll call you a preacher When you stand up and you do what was said of Jeremiah Look at Jeremiah chapter 1 Jeremiah is a great book by the way And by the way it's got some parts that are a little bit heavy plowing I'm not going to lie to you It's one of the more difficult books But chapter 28 was pretty interesting right? There's about seven chapters like that in Jeremiah That are just really cool chapters That are just really easy to read Really interesting stories But then the other 45 Those are the tough ones But you know if you read through the other 45 You'll get to the seven great chapters That'll actually teach you young guys how to be a man Right? How to be a real preacher How to be like Jeremiah A great man of God That Jesus was compared to You know that's good Look at Jeremiah chapter 1 Here's one of those seven good ones You read it, you love it But it's all good Great preaching in Jeremiah I mean you can preach the book of Jeremiah for the rest of our lives There's so much great preaching In the book of Jeremiah, I love it But look what he says here In Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 4 Sorry about that Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee He's saying before you even were conceived Before you even existed I mean before the world was even created He's saying I knew you In fact he's saying I created you Specifically With a certain purpose for your life and mine He says I knew thee Before I formed thee in the belly And by the way God's the one who forms babies in their mother's belly They don't just I don't know why but the cells just start multiplying and nobody knows why Nobody knows why Seriously The professor at ASU doesn't know why The cells start to multiply When the seed and the egg come together But they do because God begins to form and fashion And begins to mold you And you say I don't like the way I look I'm too short, too tall God made you the way that you are He formed you the way that you are If you're a man, be glad you're a man If you're tall, be glad you're tall If you're short, be glad you're short God formed you Who you are Everybody's going to dye their hair And they've got to do all this stuff To alter their appearance Just be who you are Just be the way God made you That's what I think But it says in verse number 5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet of the nation Then said I, all Lord God Behold, I cannot speak He's a humble man He says, for I am a child He's a young man, we don't know how old he was But the Lord said unto me, say not I am a child For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee And whatsoever I command thee Thou shalt speak Look at verse 8, here's the key Be not afraid of their faces And people will make faces at you when you preach But you can't let it bother you He says, for I am with thee to deliver thee Sayeth the Lord Then the Lord put forth his hand And touched my mouth And the Lord said unto me, behold I have put my words in thy mouth See, I have set thee over the nations This day set thee over the nations And over the kingdoms To root out and to pull down And to destroy and to throw down To build and to plant That's Joel Osteen's life verse In fact, Joel Osteen's coming out with a new book Remember Your Best Life Now? Remember that best seller? New York Times best seller? What was the other one that he came out with? I've seen it in the airport like 5 million times But I can't remember the name of it Your Best Life Now And then I saw the Spanish version Su mejor vida la And then there was some other Here's a book that he came out It's kind of the same gist Here's a new book for Joel Osteen I think this should be his next book Root Out, Pull Down, Destroy, Throw Down You think that's a catchy title? Like just picture him smiling Throw Down, Pull Down, Root Out, Destroy By Joel Osteen No, because that's not the kind of preacher that he is Because God didn't call him Because when God calls you, that's what he tells you to do That's what he does Now there's building and planting that takes place But it's hard to build something Until you tear down what used to be there Until you demolish the old building You can't really build the new Because you can't put new wine into old bottles You can't put new cloth onto an old garment Sometimes you've got to start over with people You know, you've got to start over with things I thank God I started a church Because I didn't want to take over some messed up Corrupted church and try to straighten it out You know what I mean? Start churches in America Instead of trying to resuscitate that dead church And keep on trying to breathe life into it It's dead Start a new one But he says here He says, I've set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms To root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down To build and to plant Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying Jeremiah, what seest thou? And he said, I see a rod of an almond tree Then said the Lord unto me, Thou is well seen For I will hasten my word to perform it And he goes on and gives him this great prophecy This great preaching that he does But you see Jeremiah was spoken against He's hated People didn't like him They said bad things about him People will lie about you when you do what's right Do right on the job, be honest There will be times when people lie about you It's true They'll cast out your name as evil They'll reproach you There will be times when you've done everything right But somebody will make you the fall guy For what they've done wrong There will be times when you do everything right By your boss, but your boss just doesn't like you Because you're a Christian I've been there You know, thank God Some of my bosses have been Christians They looked upon me And had no problem with my religion But other times I've had bosses That purposely tried to hold me back Because they knew I was a Christian They did not like it It was affecting my job Because it wasn't affecting my performance It's just that there are some people who hate Christianity That hate Christians They want to persecute Christians They want to make their life miserable They want to take away your rights They can't stand it It's like Haman in the book of Esther Boy, I love the book of Esther Great book in the Bible It's like Haman They can't stand it that somebody's not bowing down to them You remember how everybody had to bow down and worship Haman every time he walked by? It was Mordecai who refused to bow down to man Because he said I bow down to one person that's God Almighty That's the only person I bow to that's God Almighty He said I will not bow down to a man I will not worship a man And everybody else is bowing down Even a lot of the Jews They're supposedly of the same religion as he was They're all bowing down Because it's the law Right? You've got to obey the law, right? So they're bowing down And he's the only one who said no No He said I won't even move for him He said I'm not even going to tip my hat to him I'm not even going to say hi He said he moved not for him He said he wouldn't even move He just stood there unmovable Everybody else bowing down Oh, Haman And Haman was promoted He was the second in command of the whole kingdom He had wealth He had ten children He had the wherewithal to support them And to live a lavish lifestyle He was the most powerful man in the kingdom Besides King Ahasuerus himself But he said All of this availeth mean nothing So long as I see Mordecai the Jew Standing When everybody else is bowing down So that tells me something There are people in this world Who have a desire to make the Christian bow Even if it has nothing to do with money Has nothing to do with their own power Has nothing to do with anything that they gain from it Except for the satisfaction Of making the Christian bow down Against his religion Think about this now That's what the Bible Pizza is, the book of Esther I remember when I was at Round Table Pizza I had coworkers literally offer me $200 They pulled out one time in particular $200 cash And held it in front of me Back then $200 is a lot of money When you're a teenager Working at Round Table I had just turned 18 And I'm 18, I'm working at Round Table And somebody is putting $200 in front of me Saying Come with us to the gentleman's club Come with us to the strip club I'll give you $200 cash right now A couple people had pooled the money Conspired To give me $200 To try to get me to go To that strip club Because I was 18 so now I'm allowed to go there Uncle Sam will let me go there Because that's really our God today Is the government People don't believe in God anymore, they don't believe in God's rules So now the government is their God And the laws of the land are their religion If it's legal it must be okay No Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's okay And that becomes their moral compass The law And so they say, oh you're 18 You're 13, now you can go watch these wicked movies That are PG-13 G-rated Somebody said the Disney movies are G-rated The G stands for gay Are those Disney movies? It's true Did you know that I think 40% of Disney staff Is homosexual openly 40% were Disney The highest in the entertainment industry Walt Disney Look it up on the internet, look at the statistics And I believe in anything Just based upon the stuff that they put out So the PG is pretty gay The 13 Is how old you have to be before you're exposed And then The R-rated You can go if you're Over 13 Because you've got to be with somebody who's An adult You've got to be with a parent or guardian If you're under 17 You can go 17 by yourself To the R-rated video Just to give you a year To learn all the filthy stuff you're going to do When you turn 18 They give you one year just to see all the movies Maybe one per week And you can see about 52 wicked Smutty movies That are R-rated You can see some R-rated movies before that When you're 13 As long as you've got your parent you can go watch all the filth And then the NC-17 You've got to be 17 for the porno And so you can go watch that stuff And then when you turn 18 Now you're allowed to go to the strip club You still can't drink Don't drink No, no But you can go to a strip club Because you're 18 now You can gamble, you can go to the strip club You've got to wait three more years Before you can start drinking Because first you've got to mess up your life For three years Before you're miserable enough Then you have to drink And by the way, you know who drinks more than anybody? Poor people and rich people You ever run into rich people What are they obsessed with? It's one word Wine You got it Wine Come on, everybody I've known who's rich Is really into wine They love it Wine, wine, wine, wine And what about really poor people? Beer, beer, beer, beer Why? Because you know Most rich people are miserable, that's why Because they can get everything they want It's just like all the Hollywood people They're all committing suicide They have everything and they realize it's not that great It's not what it's cracked up to be They get depressed, they just get drunk all the time They call it, you know, wolf wine It's not beer, it's not getting drunk It's just wine You know Oh, well wine is so much more civilized Even though it's twice as much alcohol As a brewski And then, you know, poor people They're miserable, they don't like their life Or they're lazy, whatever So they drink themselves to oblivion It's true What does that have to do with the sermon? Somebody help me out Please Where am I at in the sermon? Somebody help me get my Is anybody listening to this? No See, here's the thing When I lose my place in my sermon, I just yell the word No What was I talking about? Somebody help me out Yeah, there we go They want Christians to bow Other people offer me money to drink Same thing Trying to get you to fall It's just like Eve when she wants to give the fruit to Adam And say, you know, eat it with me Adam Sin with me because misery loves company And they want you to fall And today our government is the United States of Haman Yes You know, it's like they want you to participate in bad things That you don't believe in And they want you to pay for it And they want you to put your kids in it You know, I just wish I could just live my own Christian life Without Haman forcing me To violate my convictions as a Christian And you're going to have You young guys that are growing up And young ladies Listen to me now Young teenage girls That are in the public school system That are in this room listening to me preach right now How are you going to stand for God ten years from now? If you can't stand for God right now I mean If you can't stand for God If you can't stand for God at school Because somebody laughed at you Because you had the Bible with you Or the New Testament with you If you can't stand up for God like that now How are you going to stand up for God When some policeman is saying, you know Put your kids in this wicked school or else Or you know You must bow down in this area Or that area Or it's illegal to go to church Or you can't go to that kind of church Because they don't have a permit We're like an undocumented church We're like an undocumented worker We're like A spiritual version of An illegal immigrant or something We're an undocumented church That's what they'll classify one day They'll pull our permit They'll pull our license to be here And then again we don't have one But anyway You say, I'll stand for God then If somebody says to deny Jesus Christ I'll take that stand I'll go to jail Like Peter said, I'll die with you To Jesus But wait a minute Are you standing for him now? You better start now Kids You better start taking the stands now children And young men And everybody in this room better say, you know I'm going to stand up in the area where it's easy And then one day when it becomes hard I'll be like Daniel I'll be like Shadrach And when the king wants me to bow down To the golden image that he set up in the plane of Dura Everyone will be on their faces But three men will be standing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Who basically what they were saying With their actions was, I'd rather burn Than bow But how'd they get like that? They started out in Daniel chapter 1 With a much easier trial Where in Daniel chapter 1 it was just about The food that they ate They took a stand against alcohol in Daniel chapter 1 They took a stand against meat That was sacrificed unto idols in chapter 1 That was a lot easier when they were in high school And they said no to alcohol When they were in high school and they said no To fitting in and eating the king's meat That was the proving ground For one day when they would be Faced with Nebuchadnezzar Themselves and a burning Fiery furnace saying, bow down He said, I'm going to give you one more chance You remember this? When that music will begin to play And when that music plays you will fall down And worship the image I've set up And they said, we don't need another chance He offered them another chance But he said, no We're not careful To answer thee concerning this matter He said, we're not Trying to walk on eggs here Or be careful what we say He said, we're not careful to answer thee He said, we believe Our God is able to deliver us From the fiery furnace This is my favorite part They didn't know for sure God is going to do a miracle They said, God could do it God is able to do it But if not, be it known unto thee, O king That we will not bow down To thy image We won't do it Throw us in And he got angry His visage was changed He was gracious at first They said, heat it up And they said, it's not supposed to go that hot They said, this is the rating on it He said, I want it He said, I want it to go Seven times hotter than that And they're like, what? So they were like, whatever So they cranked that thing up So hot that the people who were operating it Died Why do you think that's funny? They made it really hot So that even those who threw them Into the furnace Died That's how hot it was But they were thrown in And they stood up And the ropes burned off their hands From the heat But their bodies were untouched And remember Nebuchadnezzar looked in the fire And said, wait a minute Didn't we cast three men into the fire? And he said, yes True, O king He said, Lo, I see four men And the form of the fourth Is like the son of God Now if you're reading one of these new NIV bottles, it says A son of the gods You know, that's a little different It says, a son of the gods But in the Bible it says The form of the fourth is like the son of God Nebuchadnezzar is Scared to death He yells out to them himself He jumps out of the throne He goes down there himself And he called them to them And brought them out And they didn't even smell like smoke And not even one hair of their head was stitched God protected them But God didn't protect everybody in the Bible He didn't protect James, the brother of John The son of Zebedee When he was slain with the sword by Herod He didn't protect John the Baptist from being beheaded But let me tell you something Those men are forever They are forever enshrined in the word of God And they are rejoicing right now with Jesus in heaven They live in heaven today God is not the God of the dead but of the living John the Baptist is in heaven And these men are in heaven They are alive and well And they are glad that they were faithful unto death And received the crown of life Ask yourself this question Will I be able to stand In the swelling of Jordan When I can't even stand now If you can't If you can't run with the I'm paraphrasing with a scripture in Isaiah If you can't run with the folkmen How are you ever going to run with the horses? How are you going to stand one day When the stakes are like a burning fiery furnace If you can't stand When it's some metro sexual Geek at school Snickering at you You know what I mean? And that's what these bunch of guys are anyway This little bird feather Their hairdos like a tweety bird feather Does anybody know what I'm talking about? You know the little tweety bird hairdo? And the little tight little pants You know some metro little queer Is going to snicker at you because you read the Holy Bible Read it! Be a man! And if you're a girl Then be there and read it And stand for what's right Maybe some godly young man will see that And you can hang around with the right kind of crowd Instead of hanging around with a bunch of weirdos anyway Hey, this world is not my home I'm just passing through And we ought not fit in with it We ought not be spoken well of We ought to say, you know what? I'm going to do what's right and as much as in me is As much as possible I'm going to seek to live at peace with all men I'm not out looking for a fight I want to get along, I want to be happy I want to be friendly, I want to be nice to people But But If I'm a Christian I'm going to be spoken against Everywhere School Work America, Germany The guy that was here this morning The reporter from Germany He said, you know a lot of people aren't going to like you in Germany When they read the start of the book I started crying I said, can't you Can't you soften it up a little You're writing the article He's like, no He's like, a lot of people aren't going to like you And he said, I think almost everybody's not going to like you But you know what? I didn't need him to tell me that Seriously Because I read it in Acts 28, 22 And when he said everywhere I pretty much figured That could be America, Germany, whatever You know what I mean? It doesn't matter where But you know what? There's one place where we're not spoken against In heaven Right? In heaven In heaven we'll be popular You know what I mean? If we did the right thing, if we took the stand But you're never going to be popular in this world If you do what's right And so don't think of any strange thing concerning the fiery trial Which is to I almost said to fry you But the fiery trial Which is to try you No, it's not that hot of a trial The fiery trial Which is to try you When your auntie starts getting on you Telling you that you're too radical Just realize that that's part of the game That's part of being a Christian Don't let it say Oh man, am I too radical? Am I going too far here? Knocking doors You know? Don't let it get to you When people criticize you Because you know what? I don't care who you are I know you're tough and I'm tough But you know what? It does start to get to you after a while When you're constantly criticized I know from experience. I've been criticized a lot And sometimes it starts to wear you down You know, your flesh just doesn't like it And it'll start to wear you down It'll start to wear you down You've got to just realize There's no ultimate yes But just do right Do right Your name is a good name written in heaven That should be enough And just live for God Stand up for what's right Carry the Bible with you to school Carry it in the lunch pail at work Get out your Bible at lunch or read it on the job Adults You know, you love to get on the teenagers But how about the adults? Pull the Bible out of the lunch box and read it There will be people who won't like it Other people may like it But it doesn't really matter Just do it And you know what? It might even be the opportunity to give somebody the gospel When they see you reading that Bible A lot of opportunities Sometimes I'll just open the Bible on the plane And you get an opportunity to give the gospel right there My license plate gave me an opportunity to give the gospel When you're open about what you believe When you just let your light shine You can have the chance to give people the gospel And I bet you teenagers If you didn't bring the Bible to school You'd have a chance to give the gospel You know, if that's where you're at or at work or whatever And so take those opportunities To stand up for what's right You're going to be spoken against That's life But stand strong And do what's right Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Father, please just help us to be like Jeremiah Dear God, I pray that Jeremiah would be our hero I pray that every man in this room Every young man, every older man Every single man in this room would say You know what, I think Jeremiah is going to be my hero I'm going to study the book of Jeremiah I'm going to read those 52 chapters and see what made him so great I wish that the Bible characters would be our heroes That we would love We would love to be like a Mordecai We'd love to be like an Isaiah or a Jeremiah Instead of picking a bunch of sports heroes Dear God, help us to have heroes That are heroes of the faith Dear God And help us to love them And to use them, to take them As you said in James 5 For an example of suffering, affliction of patience Help us to take their example And help us to be like them And to understand that We're going to be evil spoken against Dear God, but help us to stay with it And in Jesus' name we pray